Birds Perch Over Stars
by Amatea
Summary: Fareeha and Angela are alone together on the moon.


Horizon Lunar Colony, December 2076

Fareeha looks up at the Earth hanging in the sky above and thinks about how close she feels to it while they're so many kilometers away. That's home, the blue circle with little green splotches on it, she reminds herself. Staring at the Earth cross the black sky above, she almost forgets she's playing catch with Angela right now.

"What's the matter?" Angela asks over the radio. She's on the far side of a large crater in the lunar surface, waiting expectantly for a pass. Her bulbous orange space suit gives Angela just enough mobility to wave for attention. But she soon realizes that Fareeha's occupied by a certain distracting planet above their heads. She stops waving and waits, letting her thoughts wander. She remembers they woke up to an Earthrise right outside their window this morning, and the both couldn't pry their gaze away. It wasn't until they realized a whole half hour had passed while they sat in bed waxing sentimental that they came to their senses.

"I can't stop looking at it, Angela!" cries Fareeha with the basketball in her chubby gloved hands. "It's mesmerizing!"

Angela's giggling as she teases. "Missing home already? We can go back, it's only a week-long flight!"

"Not a chance." Fareeha grips the ball harder and readies a pass. "We have a mission to complete here. Catch!"

It's not much of a throw. Fareeha almost nudges the ball to Angela as if pushing a child on their bike. Despite the lightness of her throw, the ball easily sails across the crater into Angela's cradling arms. The impact makes a muted thump in the suit's enclosed atmosphere.

"I got it!" She tosses it into the air a little too hard, and it lingers above her head before nearly bouncing off the reflective glass helmet of her suit. "We should go back and rest, Fareeha" she suggests while chasing the ball away from the crater.

"Copy that. Winston will want this data from the suit." Fareeha begins to leap and jump in pursuit. She elects to go through the crater between them rather than go around. She dives forth, down the gentle dip in the ground and away from the sun's light above. From the very center of the crater, Fareeha feels as if she's in the middle of a stadium, with thousands of eyes looking down at her. The lifeless moon rock, however, betray no illusion. She and Angela (and Winston, of course) are alone out here, probably more alone than anyone else can be, at least physically. "Could you give me a lift from this crater? Fire up your Valkyrie wings."

Angela watches with an adoring smile as Fareeha barrels down into the crater, stops, and stands around like she's lost before asking for a lift. She wonders about her: Is Fareeha so excited about her first moon walk that she's having fun? On a mission? Her back sprouts wings, two spindly jets with glowing etheric feathers. They gently lift her over the edge of the crater and down over Fareeha's head, extending her arm like an angel from a fresco painting. almost a show offish maneuver. She'll have her fun too, certainly before they take these space suits off. "Take my hand!"

They rise from the crater as if pulled by a rope above. In a graceful arc, Mercy carries her hand-in-hand across a short span of moon rock to the colony's rooftop. Fareeha watches the gray landscape pass underneath, feels the unearthly sensation of weighing a fraction of what she does in her native gravity.

She's taken back to her early days in Overwatch, in a time where Angela stood at least two heads above her, when she would swing from Angela's arms with such force that she would almost dislocate Angela's shoulders. The memory distracts her from the present, and only the jarring thud of her landing could snap her out of it. Her legs struggle to find their balance, and she falls flat on her helmet before her hands can stop it.

"Oops" chimes Angela as she descends to Fareeha's side. "The Valkyrie system might need some adjustments."

Later, Angela and Fareeha snuggle precariously along the edge of the radio tower, a rather high spire with a round balcony circling its tip. Before them, a world of stillness and death, haunted by ghostly moonrock and the black void of space. And yet, Fareeha thought to herself, it's inviting. She almost wants to jump back out there and run into the horizon. Because beyond that horizon is the Earth, a sort of blue light at the end of a tunnel.

Fatigue blankets them, especially after a whole hour of wearing such a cumbersome garb. Angela wraps one arm around for an indulgent hug. She whispers something into the radio. "You've been staring at the Earth this entire time, habibti. Why?"

"I don't know." Fareeha replies. "Maybe I miss home already."

Mercy chuckles. "You said the opposite when we were playing basketball."

"The mission's over now." Fareeha says flatly. "Winston told us to play around with the ball, so I had as much fun as I could. Now that we're done, I don't feel much of anything."

"Then hold me closer" Angela says. "Feel me, if nothing else."

Fareeha feels something coming as Angela holds her hand. They're alone, more alone than anyone could ever be alone physically. Perhaps, Fareeha thinks to herself, this is what it means to be alone together.


End file.
